Chinese calligraphy : an introduction to its aesthetic and technique : with 6 plates and 155 text illustratons

CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY

balance, because the centre of gravity falls at the foot of the axial stroke. Fig. 106 contains some examples :

FE LAF

Chung Hsiao (middie) (to Faish) (small) Be died FIG. 106

With characters comprising two elements the problem at once becomes more difficult; with three or four elements it may be very complex indeed. And even with simple characters like those in Fig. 106, the obligation to balance them upon the centre of gravity is, as will be seen when some of them recur as examples in the paragraphs following, not the only principle it is necessary to consider.

I have chosen fourteen rules :

(1) P‘ai-Tieh (# #), Arranging and Piling Up. We apply this principle to characters of particular complexity or those which have duplication and re-duplication of elements. We have to ‘arrange’, or space, the strokes of these characters regularly, taking care neither to overcrowd nor to leave too loose; or else we ‘ pile-up’ the elements evenly, avoiding a crushed appearance. We try to place the strokes so that, in spite of their number, the character is still lively. Such similes as that of a mass of spring flowers or a pile of summer leaves are commonly used to convey the desired absence of either artifice or confusion. In Fig. 107 the first character, Shou, “longevity ’, is composed of a succession of regularly-spaced horizontal strokes, one below the other; the result is neither

[172]